Teaching Handbook

At the block corner, Thabo is stacking blocks and they keep falling. You do not build the tower for him. You sit at his level and say, 'Your tower keeps falling down. I wonder what would make the bottom stronger?' He tries a wider base. You notice out loud: 'You made the bottom wider and now it stands.' He has just discovered a physics idea through his own play.

Lindiwe is stuck on a puzzle. Instead of putting the piece in for her, you scaffold in steps and stop as soon as she can carry on: (1) 'Look, there is a gap here' (point). (2) 'Which piece has a straight edge like this side?' (3) If still stuck: 'Try turning it around.' (4) The moment she gets it: 'You turned it and it fitted! You did it.' Next time she needs less help.

For a morning ring with 3-year-olds, you keep it to 10–15 minutes with lots of movement and singing, because that is what their bodies and attention allow. You don't expect them to trace letters. For the Grade R group you can go 20–25 minutes and add mark-making, because they are ready for more.

Every morning you greet each child by name at the door, crouch to their level, and say something personal: 'Sawubona Ayanda, I like your red shoes today.' For the babies and toddlers, each child has one main caregiver who knows their routines. When a child cries, you don't say 'stop crying' — you kneel, name the feeling, and stay: 'You are sad that Mama left. I am here. She always comes back.'

Every morning at the door you crouch to each child's level, greet them, and quickly look: eyes clear or red and weepy? Skin — any rash or sores? Breathing calm or fast and struggling? Are they warm and floppy, or bright and busy? When Katekani arrives quiet and hot, leaning on her gogo, you feel her forehead, ask 'When did she start feeling sick? Did she eat? Any vomiting?' and record it. She is burning up and not herself, so you keep her comfortable, apart from the group, and call her mother to fetch her and go to the clinic.

You teach handwashing as a game with a 20-second song ('Wash-wash-wash your hands' to the tune of Row Your Boat) so children scrub long enough. With load-shedding and no running tap some days, you set up a 'tippy-tap' — a bottle with a hole, tipped by a foot-string — and a bar of soap, so hands still get washed with clean poured water. At nappy time you change Musa on a wiped mat, keep one hand on him the whole time, talk him through it ('Now I'm cleaning you, nice and clean'), wipe from front to back, wash your hands and his, and never walk away leaving him on a raised surface.

In the baby room you always lay little Rhandzu down on her back, on a firm flat mat with nothing loose around her — no pillow, no soft toy, no thick blanket over her face. If it is cold you dress her warmly rather than piling on bedding, and you keep the room from getting too hot. You stay in the room and glance at the sleeping babies often. For the toddler group after lunch, you dim the room, play one soft song, and space the sleep mats apart so a restless child does not disturb the others; children who do not sleep rest quietly with a book.

At Bethel a good, cheap plate is pap or brown bread (starch), morogo/spinach or cabbage and a carrot (veg), and sugar beans or an egg or pilchards (protein), with a fruit like a banana when there is one, and cups of clean water. You sit at the table and eat with the children instead of standing over them. You turn the meal into talk and maths: 'How many spoons of beans? Let's count. This morogo is green and it makes you strong.' Precious feeds herself, spills, and tries again — you let her, because self-feeding is learning. No child is forced to finish or shamed for eating slowly.

Each morning before children arrive you scan the space: any broken glass, sharp edges, loose wires, medicines or paraffin/cleaning bottles within reach, open buckets of water, gaps in the fence? You store all medicines, matches, paraffin and cleaning products locked up high. When Lwazi trips and grazes his knee, you stay calm, wash it with clean water, cover it, comfort him, and write it in the accident book to tell his parent. Everyone knows the emergency numbers are on the wall, and at least one adult on site has done a basic first-aid course.

Over two weeks you notice Amahle flinches when an adult raises a hand, has bruises on her back and upper arms (places children don't normally bruise from play), and has started wetting herself and clinging. You do not confront the family or investigate yourself. You write down exactly what you saw and heard, with dates, in the child's own words where possible. You tell the principal, and together you report to the local social worker (DSD or Child Welfare) and complete Form 22. You keep it confidential and do not tip off the person you suspect.

At Bethel there is a code of conduct everyone signs. Children are only ever released to adults on the signed authorised-collection list — when an uncle you don't know comes for Nkateko, you phone the mother to confirm before letting him take her. Staff are never alone with a child behind a closed, locked door; toilet help happens with the door open and in view. Comforting a crying toddler on your lap is normal and kind, and you do it openly. No one photographs children on a personal phone. New staff are checked against the child protection registers before they start.

At Bethel you divide even a single hall into clear corners using shelves, mats and masking-tape lines: a BLOCK corner (blocks, boxes, bottle-top 'cars'), a HOME/fantasy corner (old pots, cloths, dolls), a BOOK/quiet corner (a mat, a few books, cushions), an ART corner (crayons, chalk, waste paper, paint), a SAND/WATER spot, and a DISCOVERY table (stones, seed pods, leaves, a magnifying glass). Everything sits on low open shelves in labelled tins so children help themselves and pack away. The walls have labels in siSwati/Xitsonga and English with pictures, name cards, and the children's own artwork at their eye level.

You mark out zones in the Bethel yard: an ACTIVE zone for running and ball games and a balance rope; a SAND/WATER/MUD zone for digging and pouring; a QUIET shady zone with a mat under the tree; and a small VEGETABLE GARDEN the children help plant and water. You gather 'loose parts' — old tyres, logs, planks, buckets, rope — that children roll, stack, balance on, and turn into whatever they imagine. Before the children come out you walk the yard for glass, sharp objects, animal mess, and standing water. In summer you keep water bottles and hats and avoid the harsh midday sun.

Bethel's daily flow is written on the wall with pictures so even children who can't read yet know the shape of the day: arrival and health check, free play in the corners, wash hands and morning ring, toilet and snack, outdoor big-movement play, story time, small structured activities, lunch, rest/sleep, quiet play, and departure with a handover to parents. The order almost never changes, so a new child like Rirhandzu settles fast. When something disrupts it (rain, load-shedding, a late meal), you keep the same order and just shorten or swap parts, and you warn the children of the change.

You choose a theme close to the children's lives — 'Water', say — and plan across the six areas on a single grid: Communication (a water story, water words in siSwati/Xitsonga and English), Exploring Maths (full/empty, more/less, floating and sinking counting), Creativity (blue paint, water sounds, a rain dance), Knowledge of the World (where water comes from, who uses it, watering the garden), Well-being (washing hands, drinking enough), Identity and Belonging (my family fetches water, our river). At week's end you check your observation notes and the grid: the maths got light this week, so next week you plan more of it.

A working morning-ring order for Bethel: (1) Greeting song in home language, each child greeted by name. (2) Attendance — children move their own name card to 'I am here'. (3) Calendar and weather — a child points to today and to the sky, everyone does the weather action (wiggle fingers for rain, arms up for sun). (4) News — two or three children share one sentence. (5) Movement song to release energy. (6) Introduce today's theme with a real object to pass around. (7) Closing song. Keep it 10–15 min for 3s, 20–25 for Grade R.

Before: show the cover, 'What do you think this story is about?' During: read with expression, pause and ask 'What is happening here? Why do you think she did that? What will happen next?' After: 'Has that ever happened to you?' For wordless picture books, you and the children make up the story together. On days with no book, tell a folk tale from memory in home language — that counts and it is powerful.

Free play: children choose between block corner, home corner, sand/water, drawing, and books; you move around observing and extending. Structured play (adult-set goal, still fun): a sorting game where children post bottle tops into tins by colour — the goal is sorting and counting, but it feels like a game. You set it up, model once, then let them play.

With no fancy equipment you can run: a balance line (walk along a rope on the ground), animal walks (hop like a frog, stretch like a giraffe), throwing bean-bags (stuffed cloth) into a bucket, 'traffic lights' (run/stop), and ball games. You supervise actively, scanning for safety, joining the fun.

Instead of shouting for quiet, you teach one signal: you raise your hand and start a soft clap pattern; children copy the clap and stop talking. For transitions you sing the same tidy-up song every day so children know what comes next. When Themba grabs a toy, you don't punish — you kneel: 'You really want that truck. Sipho is using it. Let's find another or ask for a turn: "Can I have a turn when you are finished?"'

Two-year-old Sindi bites Bhuti over a toy car. You go first to Bhuti, comfort him, and check the bite. Then you get down to Sindi, calm and firm, and say 'No biting. Biting hurts. Look, Bhuti is crying.' You name what she felt — 'You wanted the car and you got cross' — and give her the words she was missing: 'When you want it, say "my turn next".' You stay close and help her practise. You do not bite her back, smack her, or shout that she is bad. Over weeks, with the words modelled again and again, the biting fades.

You make a simple feelings chart with drawn faces — happy, sad, angry, scared, tired — labelled in siSwati/Xitsonga and English, at children's eye level. All day you name feelings out loud: 'Tsakani looks proud of his tower', 'You seem frustrated with that zip.' You set up a small 'calm corner' with a cushion and a soft toy where an upset child can go to settle, not as a punishment but as a rest. When Vusi is winding up, you kneel and breathe with him: 'Let's smell the flower... and blow out the candle,' slow breaths together until his body softens.

You keep a small notebook or sticky notes in your apron pocket. While children play you jot quick, dated notes: 'Fri — Sipho counted 6 bottle tops one-to-one, then lost track after 6.' 'Mon — Nandi told a 4-sentence story about her dog.' You write what you saw, not 'Sipho is bad at maths'. At the end of the week you read your notes and plan.

Your notes say 'Sipho counts to 6 one-to-one then loses track.' Your next step: give Sipho counting games with 7–10 objects and let him set the table for 8 friends. Your notes say 'Nandi tells rich stories but avoids the crayons.' Next step: offer Nandi story-drawing — draw your dog story so we can keep it.

At snack time you narrate and expand: child says 'juice', you respond 'You want the orange juice? Here is your cup of cold orange juice.' You add words for feelings and ideas: 'You look frustrated because the zip is stuck.' You have real conversations, giving the child time to answer and then building on their words.

Literacy: you label areas with words and pictures, children find their own name card at register, you play rhyming and clapping-syllable games (Si-pho, two claps), and you provide crayons and chalk for mark-making. Numeracy: children count out cups for snack (one-to-one), sort bottle tops by colour, make patterns with stones (red, blue, red, blue), and you use maths talk all day: 'You have more blocks than Thabo. How many more?'

You teach concepts, tell stories, and give instructions in home language so children truly understand. Alongside, you add English in fun, low-pressure ways: an English song, counting in both languages, naming a few objects in English during play. You let children answer in whichever language they have; you never punish a child for speaking their home language.

Instead of handing out a printed apple for everyone to colour red inside the lines, you put out paper, paint, crayons, glue, and waste materials (bottle tops, leaves, cloth, seed pods) and let the children make whatever they imagine. Tsakani paints a wild swirl of colours; you don't ask 'what is it?' (which suggests it should be something) — you notice the process: 'You used lots of blue and you painted in big circles. Tell me about it.' Every child's work is different, and every piece goes up on the wall at their eye level. Some days it's messy hand-painting or mud and water — the mess is the point.

You sing every day in siSwati and Xitsonga — greeting songs, counting songs, action songs, and old favourites the grannies know. The children make their own instruments: bottles filled with dry beans or stones for shakers, tins and buckets for drums, bottle tops threaded on wire for jingles. You clap name rhythms ('Ka-te-ka-ni' — clap the beats), play 'fast and slow' and 'loud and soft', and freeze-dance when the drum stops. Scarves or cloth strips become birds and wind as children move to the music. When the room is wild, a soft song pulls everyone back; when it's flat, a movement song wakes them up.

In the baby room each infant has a key caregiver. When little Hlengiwe cries, you don't just plug a bottle — you read her cue: is she hungry, tired, wet, or wanting you? You respond warmly and name it. Nappy time is not an interruption to learning; it IS learning — you talk Hlengiwe through it, make eye contact, let her kick and coo, and wait for her 'answer' before you go on: 'Shall I lift your leg? There we go.' When she babbles 'ba-ba', you babble back, and a conversation is born long before words. You follow her rhythms rather than forcing all babies onto one clock.

For the sitting babies you fill a low basket with safe natural and household objects — a wooden spoon, a pine cone, a metal cup, a loofah, a shell, a scrap of soft cloth, a large bottle top — and let them explore with all their senses while you sit close, watching, not directing. For the toddlers you put out 'collections' — a tin of corks, a chain, a set of small boxes, empty bottles — and let them fill, empty, post, and stack for as long as they like (heuristic play). All the while you narrate in home language, use sing-song 'parentese', name what the baby looks at, sing, and answer every babble as if it were words.

Bongani (4) still speaks in single words while peers make sentences. First you increase language input: narrate his day, read one-to-one, play naming games, give him time to respond. You note it for a few weeks. If there is no progress, or he also does not respond to his name or make eye contact, you gently talk to the parents and suggest the clinic and a speech assessment.

Zinhle finishes the puzzle before everyone. You don't give her a second identical puzzle. You ask 'Can you build the same picture with the blocks?' or make her a helper: 'Can you show Thabo how you started with the edges?' You add harder questions: 'How many pieces if we had two puzzles?'

A child who cannot hold a normal crayon uses a fat crayon or one wrapped in cloth to grip. A child who cannot hear well sits close, you face them when you speak, and you add gestures and pictures. A child who struggles to sit still gets a job (hand out the cups) and a movement break. You plan activities that can be done sitting, standing, talking, or pointing so everyone can join.

As the Grade R year goes on, you focus on the real readiness skills. You help Nomsa learn to separate from her mother happily, to sit and listen to a whole story, to take turns and follow a three-step instruction, to hold a crayon and use scissors, to blow her own nose, button up, and manage the toilet alone, and to keep trying when something is hard. You don't drill her to write sentences. You prepare the family too: talk about which school, help them get the birth certificate and immunisation up to date, encourage self-help skills at home, and speak about 'big school' with excitement, never with threats.

You do a friendly daily handover ('Ayanda ate well and loved the story about the lion'). You share something positive before any concern. You suggest one simple home activity ('Ask her to count the plates at supper'). You invite parents in, listen to what they see at home, and keep them informed early and kindly if something worries you.

You reflect at the end of each week: what went well, what one thing will I change on Monday? You pursue the formal pathway step by step, and you use free, high-quality training resources to keep learning between qualifications.